Harry Potter and the Heir of Black (HP8)
by FredBlack01
Summary: Things have changed since Voldemort's defeat. Harry and Ron have gone out to work, and Hermione is on her way back to Hogwarts for her final year of education. However, little does she realise that this year will be just as eventful as the last seven. She also doesn't realise that while on the Hogwarts Express with Ginny and Luna, she will meet a young man who isn't what he seems.
1. Chapter 1 - The Colourful Orphan

Chapter 1 – The Colourful Orphan

Minerva McGonagall was deep in thought as she walked slowly down the street. It was hard to believe that only weeks had passed since the Battle of Hogwarts. She was still struggling to take everything that had happened in. It took her several moments to realise that she had in fact walked straight past her destination. Looking back, she observed the tall, dark building with disdain. She had always despised orphanages. She entered and began walking towards the receptionist. She took in the building around her and was pleasantly surprised by its interior. As opposed to its dark outside, the walls of the lobby were decorated with various pictures that had obviously been drawn by the younger residents of the building, and there seemed to be a pleasant atmosphere, as if the workers had tried to make it homely for the children.

Professor McGonagall noticed that the young lady behind the desk was observing her with a mixture of curiosity and alarm. Minerva had never had a knack for dressing in Muggle clothes, and was currently wearing a long green dress with a tartan overcoat.

"Good day, I am here to see Mrs Newton." It took a moment for the receptionist to register that she had been addressed by this strange woman.

"Er, what name shall I give?"

"Professor McGonagall. I am here to speak to her about one of your residents."

"Yes miss." The girl got out of her seat and disappeared down a long corridor.

She returned about a minute later with a much older, more severe looking woman. She would obviously be very questioning about exactly what this strange woman was there for.

"Good day professor, how can I help you?"

"Could we speak somewhere a bit more private please?" Minerva didn't really want to discuss these things around other people, especially not since she could see the receptionist trying to look around her boss, clearly wondering what was going on. For a moment, Mrs Newton looked as though she was going to refuse this request, but then turned on her heel and began to head back down the dark corridor. Professor McGonagall followed.

Mrs Newton led the professor into her office before sitting down to face her. As Professor McGonagall took her own seat, she couldn't help but notice that this room reflected the dark and miserable exterior. This room contained no decoration at all, merely a desk which separated the two women and filing cabinets all around the wall, obviously detailing all of the previous children to have resided here.

"How can I help you?" Mrs Newton repeated. Minerva knew that there was no point beating around the bush.

"One of your students, Adam Black, has been accepted into the school which I work for." Mrs Newton raised her eyebrows not in surprise, but clearly deep in doubt.

"Who put him on this list? Adam has been here almost as long as me, he was just dropped off one day, just a note saying his name."

"I don't know exactly who put him onto the list, but he has been down for a while now." Mrs Newton observed this strange woman closely, clearly considering her, before ultimately deciding that this woman could be trusted.

"Very well. In all honesty, I won't be sorry to see him leave us."

"Really?" Professor McGonagall straightened up slightly, "Why exactly?" Mrs Newton suddenly looked even more serious, a feat Minerva wouldn't have thought possible.

"He is definitely in this school of yours isn't he? It doesn't matter what I tell you?"

"Yes."

"Well, strange things seem to happen around him. There was this one time, when he got locked out on the roof of the orphanage. When we went up to let him in, he wasn't there, he was back in his room." Minerva wasn't all that surprised by this. If he hadn't shown any signs of magic by now, then she wouldn't be there.

"And then, there was his hair." Mrs Newtons' expression sharpened in apparent distaste. "When he stayed out in the sun too long, his hair seemed to go a shade of ginger which the other kids made fun of. Next morning, he woke up to have bright blue hair," Minerva raised her eyebrows slightly at this news, "We of course assumed that one of the other kids dyed it while he was asleep as a prank, but no one owned up to it and we couldn't dye it back."

"Really?" Minerva was very surprised. In her whole life, she had only ever heard of two Metamorphmagi, Nymphadora Tonks and her son. From studying these types of wizard, she knew that they were extremely rare and that they inherited their powers from someone in their family. Yet she was under the impression that this child was a muggle-born.

"So, would you like to meet him?" Mrs Newton asked suddenly, bringing Minerva back to the conversation.

"Yes please." Minerva stood up and allowed herself to be led out of the office. Mrs Newton led her deep into the orphanage, where she found a room with a faded sign on the door which read "Adam Black." Mrs Newton knocked on the door three times, but before waiting for anything to happen, stalked off down the hallway, leaving Minerva waiting alone in the corridor as footsteps approached her from the other side of the door.


	2. Chapter 2 - The Dancing Monkey

Chapter 2 – The Dancing Monkey

The door opened to show Minerva the person she was seeking. She looked down to see the young man. He was fairly skinny with a round face and kind grey-blue eyes. However, the feature that made him stand out more than anything else was his long sky-blue hair. Despite his odd appearance, he wore simple jeans and a t-shirt.

"Hello Adam. My name is Professor McGonagall. May I come in please?"

"Sure." The boy smiled up at her before moving away from the doorway to allow her entrance.

Minerva stepped inside the room and looked around, taking in the room. Unlike Mrs Newton's dingy office, Adam had clearly done his best to make his room as comfortable as possible. His bedspread was very messy and the few possessions he had, mainly toys designed for children about five years younger than himself lay strewn across the floor. He sat down on the bed, his legs dangling slightly above the floor as Minerva took a seat opposite him in a small wooden chair.

"Adam, do you know why I'm here?"

"Nope." He smiled at her, clearly not disturbed by her strange fashion sense. She was slightly irritated by how cheerful this child was.

"I am Professor McGonagall," she repeated, "and I have come to tell you that you've been accepted for the school I work at."

"Really? Which school is it?"

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." She stated simply. The child's smile faltered and he looked slightly sympathetic for McGonagall, as though she was a senile old woman.

"Sorry? Witchcraft and wizardry?" he questioned.

"Yes. Mrs Newton has told me about some of the strange things that have happened," Professor McGonagall shot a look at Adam's hair, "and these things have happened because you are a wizard." Adam looked blankly at her, deep in thought, before reaching up and taking some of his hair to have a closer look at.

"But, how can I be a wizard? Wouldn't my parents need to be wizards?"

"Not necessarily. There are a lot of children like you, who are called muggle-borns." McGonagall could still see a shadow of doubt in his face. "Would you like me to prove that I'm a witch?"

Adam thought carefully. He wondered exactly what this woman would try to do, but ultimately decided she wouldn't do anything to him in a building where everybody would realise if something happened to him.

"OK." He watched as she pulled a long, thin stick of wood out of the inner pocket of her tartan jacket and pointed it at a toy monkey on the floor. If jumped up into the air and floated over to Adam's bed where it landed next to him and proceeded to perform a very complicated tap dance, before collapsing lifeless once again next to him. Adam was still staring wide-eyed at the monkey when the professor spoke again.

"Convinced?" Adam nodded weakly before turning to face her. He saw her stow her wand back in her jacket pocket before pulling out a thick enveloped and handing it to him. "That contains details about exactly what Hogwarts is and also a list of all of the equipment you will need before term starts." Adam opened his mouth to speak but closed it again, unable to comprehend exactly what was happening. Suddenly however, he was brought back to earth by a sudden realisation.

"Er, professor, where am I going to buy all of these things?" He was sure that he couldn't buy one of those magic wands anywhere in London.

"Ah, I will escort you to Diagon Alley in London tomorrow to get all of your shopping done. I will also give you the details for the train to Hogwarts tomorrow as you will need to make your own way there."

"But," Adam spoke again, seemingly determined to find a fault with what she was telling him, "I don't have any money to pay for any of this stuff." Once again however, McGonagall had an answer for him.

"For students in circumstances such as yours a small allowance is provided by the school. As I will be accompanying you, I'll be looking after your money." Adam was still struggling to comprehend everything that she had just told him. He opened his mouth once again to ask a question, but this time he was interrupted.

"All of the basic information about the magical world is inside that letter." McGonagall stood up to leave, but Adam called her back once more.

"Wait, er, professor. Could you help me to change my hair back to normal?"

"Ah yes, I believe that you are a special type of wizard called a Metamorphmagus. These wizards can change their physical appearance at will into anything that they like. You must have wanted your hair to change for some reason, and thus…" McGonagall trailed off, feeling little need to explain what the result had been.

That night, having read and memorised the details in the letter about the magical world, Adam experimented with his powers, changing his hair colour multiple times. Originally, he had just returned it to the normal chestnut brown, but since then he had been through various colours including bright yellow, silver and lime green. Currently, it had settled on black as he tried to go to sleep but his head was buzzing with excitement about what was going to happen tomorrow.


	3. Chapter 3 - The White Cat

Chapter 3 – The White Cat

Professor McGonagall returned on the final day of the month to pick Adam up. Having read her letter, he understood now why she had so much trouble picking out Muggle clothing, but today's choice of a full-length tartan dress wasn't much of an improvement on yesterday. She took him for a walk, apparently looking for something.

"Normally I would take you to Diagon Alley using Muggle modes of transport, but we have quite a few muggle-borns starting Hogwarts this year, so I'll have to take you via Apparition." Seeing the look of confusion on his face, she elaborated, "Apparition is a mode of transport wizard's use. It's a bit like the Muggle idea of teleportation."

Finally finding a dark alleyway, she led him down it and ensured that they were not being watched. Adam, gripping her arm tightly suddenly had the feeling that he was being pushed through a tight rubber tube. As soon as it had started however, the sensation faded. Opening his eyes, Adam had to blink several times in order to register what had happened. He was now standing on a pure white street with shops stacked with wizarding equipment. From where he was standing, he could see an apothecary, a book shop and hundreds of other shops that he couldn't see clearly from here.

On the street either side of them, Adam could see witches and wizards in robes of various colours passing. Strangely, despite wearing jeans and a t-shirt, Adam felt that he stood out in this street filled with strange people.

"Right then," said McGonagall, pulling out a copy of the shopping list. "we won't need to go to the apothecary, you can go use the school's store cupboard for potions. Let's start off by getting all of your books.

Adam, who was still looking around, trying to get the whole, wonderful alley into his line of sight, was led off by the impatient professor, who dragged him into Flourish and Blotts. There didn't seem to be anybody else in there. Adam assumed that most people would already have done their shopping, considering that term started tomorrow. About fifteen minutes later and having handed over 13 large golden Galleons, Adam left the shop with eight new schoolbooks. Though he wanted to stop and read them, Professor McGonagall, whose patience was clearly being tried, dragged him off along the alleyway.

Next, they went into the shop next to the apothecary's that Adam had seen earlier. A large sign hanging overhead told him that this was Potage's Cauldron Shop. Consulting his list, Adam (under Professor McGonagall's guidance) was able to buy a standard size 2, Pewter cauldron and a set of glass phials, which Professor McGonagall told him he would be using for Potions. Though he wanted to get more information about his new subjects, Professor McGonagall swiftly handed over 18 Galleons and led him along the street once again.

After pushing their way through the crowd, Professor McGonagall took Adam inside Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment. Professor McGonagall purchased a brass telescope and set of scales while Adam wondered around the shop, stopping to examine a large, grand hourglass. Before he could say anything though, he was dragged away once again. As Professsor McGonagall stopped to consult the list, Adam took deep breaths.

"What do we still need to buy?" he asked.

"We still need to get your clothes, and a wand." Professor McGonagall continued to examine the list as Adam looked across the street at the Magical Menagerie. He had met eyes with a snow-white cat in the window, it was staring at him through its big green eyes. Seemingly noticing Adam's lack of attention, Professor McGonagall followed his gaze.

"I'm sorry Mr Black, but as the school is paying for all of your equipment, we can't allow you to buy an animal."

"But professor," Adam had fallen in love with the snowy cat, "I do have some money of my own. I know its Muggle money, but couldn't I get it changed somewhere." McGonagall observed him kindly.

"Cat's cost 9 Galleons Mr Black, which is approximately £50. Do you have that much?" Adam's face fell slightly. He did have £50 but that was all of his Muggle money. He decided that the cat was worth it.

Professor McGonagall took his money and gave him 9 Galleons. She waited outside while he walked into the shop and approached the saleswitch.

"Er, excuse me, could I buy that cat in the window?" The witch smiled kindly down at him, clearly realising he was a first year student.

"Of course, the white one?"

"Yes please." She took the cat's comfortable cage and placed it on the counter.

"9 Galleons please." Adam handed over the money and gently stroked the cat through the bars of his cage.

"Does he have a name?"

"Yes, he's called Chalky, because of his colour."

"Chalky huh?" Adam continued to stroke the cat through its cage, the fluffy white cat curling up and purring as Adam walked out the shop with him. "Thank you!" he called back to the saleswitch.


	4. Chapter 4 - The Wand Shop

Chapter 4 – The Wand Shop

Adam was now getting weighed down with all of his shopping. In order to try and carry everything, he had put his most of his equipment into his cauldron, which he carried in one hand while he carried Chalky's cage in his other hand. Professor McGonagall, walking more slowly now, led him up the alley to Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions. They entered to see Madam Malkin fitting another young man for some robes.

"Could you wait over there please?" Madam Malkin called over to them as they entered and they both took seats by the window.

Madam Malkin was another ten minutes fitting robes for the other boy. Adam caught a glimpse of him smirking in the mirror at one point, apparently having caught sight of Adam and Professor McGonagall. Looking in the mirror, Adam saw his hair flash a deep, angry red when this happened, though it swiftly went back to being black. The boy being fitted had black hair and a narrow face and although Adam had thought he would want to speak to another new student, he decided against it upon seeing this boy. Eventually however, he left.

Now was Adam's turn. He stood on Madam Malkin's stall and was there for about half an hour while Madam Malkin fitted him for three sets of plain black work robes, one pointed black hat, one pair of dragon hide gloves and a black winter cloak. Finally, Professor McGonagall paid for his clothes while Adam tried to somehow fit the huge package of clothes into his cauldron. Eventually he had to give up and stuck the package under one of his arms while he walked around the alley.

"Is that it now professor?" he asked as they began to head back the way that they had come through the alley.

"Not yet, you still need to buy a wand." In all honesty, Adam hadn't forgotten about this, but he had been waiting eagerly for it ever since he had seen Professor McGonagall make that monkey dance back at his room in the orphanage. Even though this had only been yesterday it seemed as though it had been a life-time ago.

Eventually, an impatient McGonagall and an exhausted Adam reached the south side of Diagon Alley and stopped outside a shop with a large sign which read "Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands Since 382BC". Inside, Adam couldn't help himself but to allow his jaw to drop. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands, of boxes which all presumably contained those magical pieces of wood. Professor McGonagall rang a bell on the counter and an elderly wizard appeared from behind one of the many shelves. Adam thought he looked as though he had lost a lot of weight recently.

"Professor McGonagall," he greeted the teacher enthusiastically, "here with a first year I assume?" He looked behind her and saw Adam, looking thoroughly nervous. "Ah, would you like to come over here young man?" he beckoned and Adam followed, leaving his multiple purchases on the chair he had just been sitting on. He approached Mr Ollivander and was handed a long, brown wand. "12", Dogwood with a dragon heartstring core." Adam took hold of it briefly, but before he could do anything with it, Mr Ollivander took it away from him. "No." Adam heard him mutter under his breath.

This carried on for about ten minutes. Adam felt as though he had tried at least fifty wands but it didn't matter whether they were made of hazel or hawthorn or had a phoenix feather or unicorn hair core, none of them seemed to be good enough. Mr Ollivander however seemed delighted.

"I haven't had a customer this challenging in quite a while." He told Adam excitedly.

"Excuse me sir," Adam felt he had waited long enough to ask this question, "But what exactly are you looking for?" Ollivander considered him carefully before answering.

"You'll know when we find it."

Finally, he pulled a box down off the top of a shelf. Try this one. "10 ¾ ", Ebony with a unicorn hair core." Adam took hold of the wand and felt a whooshing feeling coming from the jet black wand. Ollivander seemed happier than ever. "Excellent. I think you'll enjoy that wand. It's well suited for transfiguration work, so you ought to do well in Professor McGonagall's classes." Adam turned round, about to ask what transfiguration was, but a look from his stern professor was enough to tell him that he needed to finish up so that she could help the other muggle-borns with their shopping.

They walked back down the street until they found a spot where there was nobody close to them. Professor McGonagall took the cauldron full of purchases in one hand while holding out the other for Adam to take. Prepared this time, Adam took the professor's arm and that strange feeling of being squeezed swooped over him, though it wore off quickly. This time, they had apparated straight back to Adam's room at the orphanage.

"Here is your train ticket," Professor McGonagall handed him a small pink ticket, "I look forward to seeing you at Hogwarts." And with one more turn of her cloak, the witch disappeared, leaving Adam and his many unusual purchases behind.


	5. Chapter 5 - The Hidden Station

Chapter 5 – The Hidden Station

Adam woke up early the next morning. He had decided last night that on his last day as a resident at the orphanage, he didn't want any help from the carers. He would make his own way to the station. He had packed everything except for Chalky's cage inside his old trunk and at 6.00 in the morning, before there was any sign of life inside the orphanage, he left to catch the bus. Standing outside on the corner, he reached into his trunk and pulled out his new wand. He held it up in the air and waited for the sudden flash of purple.

Professor McGonagall had told him that he could use the Knight Bus to get to King's Cross Station, but because of the protections on Platform 9 ¾, he couldn't get directly on to it. Even though her letter had explained all about the bus, Adam still couldn't believe his eyes as the triple-deckered, poisonous purple bus came into view.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus…" said the pimple-faced conductor named Stan Shunpike. With his help, Adam got his heavy trunk onto the bus and he sat down just in time before the bus lurched off towards his destination.

The bus sped along road after road, Adam's vision getting continually blurry. They seemed to have gone all over England in order to let the other passengers disembark. Adam had got on to the bus when it was nearly full, so a lot of people needed to get off before him. He was starting to feel quite ill when the conductor named Stan came up to him and told him that his stop was the next one. Adam felt too queasy to reply.

About two minutes later, Adam, highly dizzy and disoriented was helped off the bus by Stan.

"We don't charge you since your only going to the station. We already got your fare from Prof M." As soon as Adam and a hissing Chalky dismounted the bus, it shot off to its next destination and it took several minutes before Adam felt up to moving without being ill. He walked through the station till he reached the barrier between platform's 9 and 10. Although Professor McGonagall's letter had explained how to get on to the station, he didn't feel confident enough to actually do what he was required.

"Are you OK?" asked a kindly voice from behind him. He turned round to see a bushy-haired female in her late teens smiling back at him. He saw that she too had a heavy trunk and a cat, but hers was bandy-legged and ginger.

"Yes thank you." Adam was going to ask her exactly how to get onto the station, but he didn't want to in case this girl was actually a Muggle, but then he noticed the Hogwarts school logo on her trunk. "Do you know, how to…how to…"

"How to get onto the station? Yeah, I had trouble with it in my first year too. You just walk straight through the barrier. If you feel worried then it's best to run." She stood back slightly and watched Adam expectantly.

Turning his trolley to face the barrier, Adam half-walked, half-ran at the barrier, sure that whatever the girl had told him he was going to crash. But he didn't. He passed straight through the solid barrier and came out onto a new station, a gleaming scarlet train engine before him, a sign overhead telling him he was on platform 9 ¾. The bushy haired girl followed him through the barrier and came up to him.

"Do you want some help getting your stuff on the train?"

"Yes please." The two of them walked down the station and safely stored their trunks on the train. The girl checked her watch.

"I'm meeting up with some friends on the train, so I'll see you later. My name's Hermione by the way."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Adam." After the exchange of names, Hermione walked off down the station with her own cat while Adam and Chalky got onto the train.

There was only about five minutes till they left and a lot of people were hanging out the windows, waving goodbye to their families. Adam was trying to find an empty compartment, but every one he came across had a big group of people, clearly friends from previous years, sat inside, huddled in conversation. Eventually, Adam felt the scarlet engine underneath him roar into life as the train started to move.

Now that they had pulled away, all of the carriages seemed to have magically filled with the other students. Most of the new first years seemed to know each other as well, presumably from magical families. He kept on the lookout for Hermione, as she was the only person on the train that he actually knew, but there was no sign of her. Continuing down the train, he came across another carriage which was almost empty. The only person in the carriage was another boy, who was clearly another first year. He looked lonely and nervous, so Adam decided it was best to join him. He tapped briefly on the glass before entering the carriage.


	6. Chapter 6 - The Gum Contest

Chapter 6 – The Gum Contest

The other boy looked up as Adam entered the carriage, a small look of terror on his face. Even though he was another first year, the boy was quite broad-shouldered, a feature that did not match his face. He was very freckly with a round nose and deep ocean-blue eyes. His hair was another feature adding to his appearance. He had wild, seemingly untameable brown hair which had blond streaks around the edges and part of his fringe had fallen down over one of his eyes.

"Do you mind if I sit here? I don't know anybody on the train." The boy shook his head before looking out of the window, watching the countryside fly past the train.

Adam took a seat opposite the boy and let Chalky out of his cage. While Adam put the cage up in the luggage rack, Chalky jumped up and settled himself in the other boys lap. Surprisingly, he didn't mind this and began to stroke Chalky's back, a small smile spreading across his face. Adam sat back down, deciding that he would have to initiate contact.

"Are you a first year too?" Again, the boy nodded without speaking. Adam was starting to get slightly annoyed with the boy's silence, but left it for a couple of minutes before he tried speaking to him again.

"My names Adam Black. What's yours?" This time the boy's head raised up and he looked at Adam through his curtain of hair.

"Aaron Mawson." He mumbled. He then resumed his stroking of Chalky, who lay purring, quite content in Aaron's lap. Having given up on trying to talk to him, Adam sat back and began to look out of the window. "Are you muggle-born as well?" Aaron asked after a couple of minutes. Slightly stunned at him speaking, Adam replied.

"Yeah. What do your parents do?"

"They run a gym in London. What about yours?" There was an awkward silence as Adam forced the answer out of his mouth.

"I'm an orphan."

"Oh." The two boys dropped back into silence, the only noises being Chalky's quiet purrs.

About ten minutes later, there was another knock on the compartment door. This time, it was Hermione from the station.

"Hey Adam! Do you mind if we come in here, everywhere else is full?"

"No that's fine." Adam was glad for the break in the silence. Hermione filed into the carriage and sat down next to Adam. She was followed in by a girl in her late teens with flaming red hair and another girl of a similar age who had messy blond hair and what looked like plums for earrings.

"These are my friends Ginny and Luna," Hermione said, indicating each of her two friends as she said their name. "And who are you?" she asked Aaron kindly.

"Aaron." He mumbled once again. He was still stroking Chalky, who was now looking around at the three girls, clearly wondering whether any of them would have a more comfortable lap than Aaron.

"Why're you so quiet?" asked the girl named Ginny, "Are you nervous about your first year?"

"Yeah, that and I'm a muggle-born, so I probably won't be that good at school." He didn't look directly at Ginny as he spoke.

"Being muggle-born doesn't make any difference," she said in a kind tone, "look at Hermione. She's muggle-born yet she's one of the best witches I've ever known." Hermione blushed slightly and muttered something like "not that good" but nevertheless, Aaron looked much happier at this piece of information.

"And I'm Adam Black." Adam smiled at them but he saw all three girls exchange knowing looks suddenly.

"Black? As in the House of Black?" Hermione asked in shock.

"I don't think so," Adam stammered, slightly confused, "I'm a muggle-born" Despite this, the three girls still looked slightly wary of him.

Half an hour later, Aaron had opened up completely. It turned out he was actually quite a cheeky, cheerful, outgoing person. He was quite perky now and he and Adam were bombarding the girls with questions about what to expect at the school. They asked about the subjects, teachers and the school itself and Hermione and Ginny answered, happy to be helpful for the boys. The girl named Luna remained very quiet in her corner. Apparently it was Aaron being quiet that had attracted Chalky and now that he had become chatty, had abandoned him to sit in Luna's lap.

About an hour later, the trolley came along with a kindly-looking witch who asked if they wanted food. Aaron and Adam had no idea what any of the treats were, so Ginny and Hermione bought a little bit of everything for them to try. The cauldron cakes, pumpkin pasties and liquorice wands all went down well. The whole carriage then spent about five minutes chasing around some of the chocolate frogs that had escaped from their packaging and the five of them began swapping cards. Both boys were able to obtain the Albus Dumbledore card and Adam was also able to obtain the Rowena Ravenclaw card.

Having exhausted the majority of their supply of sweets, the four of them began to have a contest with the Drooble's Best Blowing Gum to see who could blow the biggest bubble and to everyone's surprise, the winner was Luna. They quietened down a bit when it came to their final supply of sweets, the Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans. All of them took it in turns to take a random bean and whilst doing this, the topic changed to Ginny, who came from a wizarding background, and her family.

"I have si…five older brothers." She said with a slight frown and both Hermione and Luna exchanged knowing looks. The topic then changed to the Battle of Hogwarts and the recent war against the Dark Wizard Voldemort. The boys were horrified to hear about everything that had happened and understood Ginny's sudden silence when they heard about her brother Fred's demise during the battle, though the atmosphere became lighter again when Aaron had the misfortune to find a soap flavoured bean, much to everybody else's amusement. Adam was so happy in the compartment with his new friends that he hadn't even noticed it getting dark out and was surprised when the conductor announced that people should start changing into their robes. They were nearly there, Adam thought happily to himself.


	7. Chapter 7 - The Black Lake

Chapter 7 – The Black Lake

As the boys pulled their robes on over their Muggle clothing, the girls having changed earlier began to get ready to head up to the castle. Ginny's Pygmy Puff Arnold had woken up and was currently perched precariously on her shoulder while Hermione retrieved a wicker basket from the luggage rack containing her ginger cat Crookshanks.

"Would you like me to take your cat up to the castle?" Asked the dreamy voice of Luna from behind Adam.

"Er, yes please." Adam retrieved Chalky's cage from the rack and coaxed the cat from Luna's lap.

As everybody began to dismount from the train, it hit Adam just how many students must have been going to the school.

"We go up to the school a different way to first-years," Hermione explained to the two boys and now that they were all standing up, the difference in their height from the girls really seemed to hit them, "you have to go down by the lake."

"Oh look, there's Hagrid!" Ginny exclaimed. Following her line of sight, Adam saw a humongous man standing at the other end of the station, carrying a lamp and shouting,

"Firs'-years over here!"

Adam stepped back, more than slightly intimidated by the giant man. Looking to his side, he saw Aaron staring open-mouthed in the same direction before meeting his gaze, the same look of terror he had worn when they first met on his face.

"Don't be scared," Hermione told them, placing reassuring hands on each of their shoulders, "He might look quite scary, but Hagrid is one of the nicest, most gentle people I know. Trust us." She winked and her reassuring smile, accompanied by those of Ginny and Luna, seemed to give Adam a little bit more courage. He looked sideways once again at Aaron, who nodded, and the two of them set off through the crowd towards the swinging light of the lantern.

Eventually, the boys managed to push their way through the older students to the group of terrified first-years, who also seemed to be intimidated by Hagrid's unnatural size. Using his free hand, he was counting their tiny heads, which was all he seemed to be able to see of them.

"Righ', we're all here so le's getting goin'." He began to lead them in the opposite direction to the elder students and led them down a path until finally they reached a lake. As they looked out across the vast lake, Adam could hear Aaron and several of the others gasp out loud.

Across the lake was what could only be Hogwarts. It was a grand castle with tiny lights showing out of its many windows, giving it a slightly eerie, yet still impressive appearance. Moored at their side of the lake were ten small wooden boats and an eleventh, man-sized one.

"Four to a boat." Hagrid yelled to the students as he climbed into his own boat. Adam and Aaron clambered into one of the boats before being followed by two other children. One of these, Adam noticed with a start, was the same boy who Adam had seen in Madam Malkin's shop at Diagon Alley. Today, Adam's hair was its usual shade of brown, so the boy did not seem to recognise him.

Once all of the students had finally settled themselves into the small boats, they began to move across the lake. Although Adam was initially surprised that the boats could move on their own, he quickly remembered that the boats had obviously been given some kind of magical power. About halfway across the lake, the castle was coming into better view and its great size could be truly appreciated. Adam heard his awe at the castle in some of his fellow students voices and couldn't help but smirk when he heard Aaron emit an audible "Wow."

Just as they nearing the opposite shore, something huge emerged from the lake. There were screams and shouts from the students nearest the intrusion, all of whom had been showered in water and were now drenched. Now that the water had faded, Adam realised that the "something" was in fact a giant tentacle. After making a few strange movements that seemed to indicate that it was waving, the tentacle submerged itself again.

"What was that?!" Aaron asked sounding both confused and also slightly amused, Adam could see him smirking at the students who had been soaked, all of whom were now complaining that their new robes had been drenched.

As they reached the opposite shore, Adam and Aaron dismounted their boat, staring up at the wondrous castle, while most of their fellow passengers also emerged from their boats. Hagrid had gone to help the last eight students, who had been nearest the tentacle, get out of their water-logged boats.

"What was that thing?" Adam asked. He could feel several eyes, including Aaron's on him, apparently impressed that he was courageous enough to talk to this giant man. Hagrid turned his shaggy head around and it took him a little while to find which student had addressed him.

"Tha' was the giant squid," He said matter-of-factly, a smile partially obscured by his hairy face appearing at the look of surprise this caused on Adam and several others faces, "it's harmless though. It jus' wanted to gree' you new students."

After helping the last students out of the boats and draping his marquee-sized overcoat around the shoulders of four soaking wet girls, Hagrid led them up to the castle. He knocked four times on the large doors before they opened. Initially, Adam thought that they had opened on their own, but he realised that in fact they had been opened by a tiny little man.

"The firs' years for ya' Professor Flitwick."

"Thank you Hagrid," The little man replied in a tiny little voice. Hagrid sidled off through the grand doors on the right of the hall. Professor Flitwick then looked up to address the young wizards and witches, "Would you follow me please?"


	8. Chapter 8 - The Hat Stall

Chapter 8 – The Hat Stall

The little professor began to lead the first years through the entrance hall, but rather than following Hagrid through the giant double doors, he took them through a smaller door into an antechamber. Once everybody had sidled into the room, Flitwick turned round to address them.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. The start of term feast will start soon, but first you must be sorted into your houses. The sorting ceremony is very important because as long as you are here, your house will be like your family. Your classes will be with the rest of your house and your common rooms and dormitories are shared with other members of your houses."

Once everyone had absorbed this information, Flitwick continued,

"There are four houses which are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has a long history and they have all produced many outstanding witches and wizards. While here, you will be rewarded with house points but any rule breaking will lose you points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points will receive the house cup. The sorting ceremony will begin soon, so take this opportunity to tidy yourselves up."

Before he left the room, Adam saw Flitwick look straight up at Aaron's wild hair and one of Aaron's hands flew up to it instinctively. As Flitwick left, Aaron turned to Adam blushing slightly, running his hands through the great mass of hair.

"Help me. Does this look better?" The honest answer was no. Before this, Aaron's hair had looked fairly neat, with some messy bits, but now it looked as though he had been out in a gust. The one good thing was that now both of his eyes were uncovered, though this doubled his look of blind panic.

Before Adam could bring himself to answer however, Professor Flitwick had reappeared.

"Form a line please and follow me." Having been among the first to enter the room, both Adam and Aaron were at the back of the line. Fear seemed to spread through Adam as though Aaron's was contagious and he was soon surprised that he could move at all, though all feelings of fear disappeared as the first-years passed through the great double doors, being replaced by feelings of mingled surprise and interest.

Thousands of candles hovered high above the five long tables, the eyes of every student seemed to be watching him. Not the line of first-years, specifically him. The light from the candles reflected off of the golden plates and goblets while the starry ceiling mirrored that of the clear sky outside. As they reached their destination and stood facing the other students, Adam could see the students still watching him very clearly. He looked down at the tiny stool in front of him, upon which stood an ancient wizard's hat. As well as various patches and it being very dirty, the hat looked as though it had suffered from quite a bit of fire damage.

Adam looked up and surprisingly, most of the older students were looking expectantly at the hat, as though it was supposed to be doing something, however Professor Flitwick stepped forward with a roll of parchment, which from his height trailed slightly on the floor.

"When I call your name, you will put the hat on and sit on the stool to be sorted. Black, Adam." Adam could feel his feet moving, though he wasn't aware that he was making them. He pulled the ancient hat up off the stool and inserted it on to his head. As it fell over his eyes, he sat down on the stool, waiting for the hat's decision.

"Very difficult," came a voice suddenly in his ear, "There's a brilliant mind in there, but there's courage and loyalty too. Yet I see a certain predisposition for Slytherin. Hmmm…" After the hat's mumblings, it fell into silence. Adam didn't hear from it for another ten minutes. He could hear that people back in the hall were starting to mumble, clearly wondering whether the hat was dysfunctional. "I've narrowed it down to two," it mumbled, more to itself than to Adam. About a minute later the hat shouted out the whole hall "RAVENCLAW!"

As Adam removed the hat from his head, he could see the table second from the left clapping loudly. He went and joined them, sitting down the end of the table next to Luna, who rather than clapping was observing him closely. Having gotten used to Luna's unusual behaviour on the journey, this didn't upset Adam at all. Screwing up his face, he turned his hair the exact shade of blue that was on the Ravenclaw symbol, to even more applause from his fellow Ravenclaw's. He sat and watched as the remainder of the students were sorted. Soon Professor Flitwick had gotten town to "Lampford, Hannah." who joined Adam at the Ravenclaw table. As it got ever nearer to his name, Aaron seemed to be getting paler.

"Mawson, Aaron." As pale as some of the ghosts that had joined them in the hall, Aaron sat trembling on the stool and placed the hat on his head. Like with Adam, the hat seemed to be having some difficulty placing Aaron in his house. After about five minutes however, the hat seemed to have won their silent struggle. "RAVENCLAW!" Adam clapped the loudest as Aaron, still pale and trembling came and sat down next to him. Adam gave him an encouraging smile and Aaron made a weak attempt to return it.

Aaron swiftly regained his colour as the sorting went on and he joined in with the others in welcoming the new Ravenclaw students when they were selected. Finally, there was only one student left. This was the narrow-faced boy who Adam had first met in Diagon Alley.

"White, Matthew." Thankfully, the hat shouted out that Matthew White belonged in "SLYTHERIN!" before falling silent once again. Little Professor Flitwick picked up the stool, which was barely smaller than him and he removed it from the hall as Professor McGonagall stood up to address the hall.


	9. Chapter 9 - The New Students

Chapter 9 – The New Students

"Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts. Please enjoy the feast, and the opening speech of the year will follow. Thank you." The headmistress took her seat as the students clapped politely. As Adam and Aaron looked back down at their empty plates, they saw the golden platters and dishes piled with food. There was roast beef, chicken, turkey, gammon steaks, sausages, bacon and other types of meat he couldn't identify. Then there were roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, chips, peas, carrots, sweetcorn and many other vegetables that he had never even seen before. Then there were large jugs filled with gravy, ketchup and barbecue sauce and salt and pepper cellars the size of Adam's new schoolbooks.

He had never exactly been starved at the orphanage but Adam had never had the ability to choose his own food before.

"Shame we ate so much on the train huh?" Aaron asked, though he had helped himself to adequate amounts of meat and vegetables and was still piling the food. Following his lead, Adam took some beef, chicken, turkey, sausages, some of each type of potato and some carrots and peas. He then proceeded to drown the whole lot in gravy. It was absolutely delicious.

As they ate, Adam and Aaron were talking with their fellow first-years. Four of them were muggle-borns like the two boys. Laura Burton had neat, long brown hair with teeth which seemed to be slightly too big for her mouth. Alice Norton, a girl with crazy red hair which seemed curly, but stood out at odd angles was deep in conversation with Luna, discussing something called the Crumple-Horned Snorkack. Matt French was a cheerful joking boy with tanned skin and dark hair, also in conversation with Katy Hilton, a black girl with her dark hair tied back on her head.

As well as their fellow muggle-borns, there were four new half-blood Ravenclaw's. A half-blood, as the others learned, were children who had a wizarding parent and a muggle or muggle-born parent. There was Kayden Crook, an abnormally tall boy with curly hair and his best friend Dexter Clark, whose hair seemed to be resisting the urge to curl. It transpired that the two of them had been friends since they were very young, having both been raised in the magical world. Hannah Lampford, the girl who had been sorted before Aaron, had sleek blond hair and several boys from down the table were watching as she chatted with Aaron. The final student was a shy girl named Nadia Rahman, who had quite an infectious laugh and was clearly enjoying her new company.

Eventually, the food disappeared and the puddings appeared. There were blocks of ice-cream in every flavour imaginable, including a multi-coloured one that looked like it might be every-beans flavour, pies and tarts, jelly and dougnuts and many others. Adam, who was now pretty full, took a block of vanilla ice-cream, deciding to play it safe. As the conversations continued, Luna came under fire from the majority of the first-years, all of whom wanted to know as much as possible, even the half-bloods, who were at as much of a disadvantage as the muggle-borns. Luna, clearly not used to so much attention was struggling, but at that moment, Professor McGonagall rose to her feet again.

The puddings disappeared and silence fell over the hall.

"Now that we've all eaten, I have a few notices to give out before the night is over. First-year students, and others, should know that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all students. I have also been asked by the caretaker Mr Filch to remind you that magic should not be used in the corridors and that all Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products, among others, have been banned. The full list can be examined in his office at any time." Adam saw Ginny threw a parting in the tables and saw her smile distinctly.

"Quidditch trials will be held the week after next. Anbody wishing to play for their house team should contact Madam Hooch as soon as possible." Based on the looks of confusion on his fellow Ravenclaw's faces, Adam wasn't the only one who didn't know what Quidditch was.

"That is all. Good night." The Ravenclaw first-years followed Luna out of the hall. They were all deep in conversation and none of them really seemed to be watching where they were going. Adam and Aaron in particular were talking about all of the new things they'd just heard with Kayden and Dexter, who knew considerably more about the magical world than them.

"Quidditch is the wizard sport," they explained, "but it's really hard to describe. You play it on broomsticks, but since first-years aren't allowed to bring their own, it's very difficult to get on to the house team." Before they knew it, they were walking up a tight spiralling staircase until they reached the top, where there was a door with a brass eagle door knocker on it. The students waited patiently, expecting Luna to do something, but they all jumped as the door knocker came to life and addressed Luna.

"Which came first, the phoenix or the flame?" Luna smiled before turning round and speaking to the first-years. She sounded mildly surprised, as if she had only just noticed they were there.

"To get into our common room you have to answer a question that the door asks you. Since you're all in the first-year, you won't get asked complicated questions like that one." She turned back to the door.

"A circle has no beginning."

"Nicely phrased." The door knocker replied before swinging open.

Adam couldn't help but smile at the sight of the Ravenclaw common room. It was a wide circular room with a midnight blue carpet and arched windows hung with blue and bronze silks. The domed ceiling overhead was painted with bright stars, which gave the same illusion that the great hall's ceiling did of still being outside. He looked around the room at the various bookcases, his smile widening at what he could learn in this room. At the end of the room, in between two doors was a white marble statue of a tall beautiful lady.

"That's Rowena Ravenclaw, our houses founder," Luna explained, several of the other students examining the statue closely. "Anyway, this door," she indicated the one on the left, "leads to the girls dormitory and the other one leads to the boys dormitory." She then opened the girls door and led them up the spiral staircase, leaving the five boys to go up their own staircase. They came across their own door on the first landing.

They opened the door to find five plush, four-poster beds with each of them having their own trunks and animals at the foot of each bed. Adam dived onto his bed in between Aaron's and Matt's and lay his head down on the pillow. The boys were all too tired to talk anymore, so changed into their pyjamas and went to bed. A strange purring sound reminded Adam with a start of Chalky, who he let out of his cage. After briefly running his hands through the pure white fur, Chalky dived on to the floor and into Aaron's bed. Of all of them in the room, these two were closest together.

"What a night huh?" Aaron asked quietly, snores already emanating from somewhere else in the room.

"Mmm" Adam replied weakly, himself drifting off into sleep. Sensing this, Aaron fell silent, and based on the loud "thunk", Chalky had leapt off of him now he was asleep. As the wind whistled through the windows of the tower, a relaxing sensation fell over Adam and he drifted peacefully off to sleep.


	10. Chapter 10 - The Temporary Teacher

Chapter 10 – The Temporary Teacher

The next morning, Adam and Aaron headed down to breakfast together, the other three boys still being asleep. When they arrived, they were surprised to find Professor McGonagall standing up, ready to give a speech. They hastily took their seats at the end of the table.

"Now that the majority of the students are here I shall begin. As some of you older students will have noticed last night, we have had no luck in finding a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher yet. Therefore, on a short term basis, we have hired Harry Potter as a lecturer." At this, there was a standing ovation from the majority of the hall, but when he looked at Aaron, he shrugged. He didn't know who he was either.

The man they seemed to be talking about looked only just old enough to have left school, with messy black hair and astonishing green eyes. He looked vaguely embrassed at his reception from the school. As Professor McGonagall took her seat and began to eat her own breakfast, Hermione took a seat next to Adam. Evidently students weren't separated by houses at mealtimes.

"Er, Hermione, who is that guy?" Aaron asked, watching Professor Potter deep in conversation with the headmistress. Hermione looked mildly surprised at their ignorance.

"That's Harry Potter. He's one of my best friends and the person who defeated Voldemort, the dark wizard." Adam was highly surprised that this scruffy young man had defeated a powerful dark wizard.

"It's understandable that you two wouldn't know," Ginny had taken a seat opposite beside Aaron, "being muggle-born's. We'll introduce you in a minute." Aaron blushed slightly as he began helping himself to some toast.

"You don't have to do that."

"Oh we will though," Luna had sat on his other side, "he'll come over and talk to us I'm sure."

Just as Luna had predicted, Professor Potter left the staff table about five minutes later and came and sat down at the Ravenclaw Table. Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows slightly. Obviously teachers didn't usually sit with the students.

"Hi guys," Harry briefly hugged Hermione and Luna and kissed Ginny, "how's the summer been?"

"Not bad. How's work at the Ministry?" Hermione asked

"It's OK, but it's different to being here. After the battle Kingsley has so many Aurors that he was glad I took some time off to work here. I think it'll be fun. Just like being in the DA again." The three girls all giggled and exchanged looks.

"Er Harry," Ginny looked as though she had only just remembered the boys were there, "these are Aaron and Adam, two new students."

"Oh hi," Harry smiled at them and shook each of their little hands in his own, helping himself to a bit of toast out of the rack, "looking forward to your lessons today?"

"Yeah." Aaron mumbled slightly, looking down and fiddling with his toast.

"Aw, he's just shy," Ginny ruffled his hair making it look even messier than usual, making Aaron smile weakly.

At that moment, Professor Flitwick coughed behind them, breaking up the conversation. He had been moving down the table handing out timetables to the students. They hadn't seen him moving down as the students had obscured him. Even sitting down, any first year could have hidden the tiny man from view.

"Granger, Weasley and Lovegood," he muttered to himself as he conjured up timetables for the three girls, "and Mawson and Black." He handed two of the timetables he was carrying to the boys. Something in Professor Potter's face seemed to have changed at the mention of Adam's name.

Ginny appeared to have noticed Harry's expression.

"We've already asked. We'll talk later." He looked at her meaningfully, but dropped it all the same. The six of them proceeded to have a very enjoyable breakfast, the girls comparing their timetables and telling the two boys about the lessons they were having today: Potions, Herbology, Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"You have Charms with Professor Flitwick, they're the most important form of magic and the most common, and Harry can tell you about Defence Against the Dark Arts." Professor Potter sat up in his seat, looking important.

"You'll learn some good stuff with me. I'm only here for this year, but I already have most of my lessons planned out. Today, you'll just be learning about the differences between curses, jinxes and hexes."

As the six of them continued to chat, Aaron seemed to become more and more vocal around Harry, similar to how he had been acting on the train. It emerged that Adam and Aaron had in fact arrived very early for breakfast, such that they had a long time before lessons even started. After the initial shock of owl post, where the owls flocked in through the open windows to deliver their parcels to their recipients, though nothing came for either of the boys.

An ancient grey owl delivered a letter to Ginny from her mother and Luna received a copy of a magazine called the Quibbler, from her father, who she announced proudly was the editor. In order to whittle away the time waiting for lessons, Adam began to practice using his Metamorphmagus powers for the groups entertainment. His hair had been black since the trip to Diagon Alley, a trip which seemed to have taken place a long time ago.

In the hour that he spent at the breakfast table, his hair had gone from pink, red, blond and even multi-coloured like a rainbow to what he had finally settled on for the day. To commemorate his new house, Adam had set his hair to the colour of a midnight blue with dark bronze streaks throughout, matching the colours of Ravenclaw's house symbol. The group parted ways, the girls heading off to their various NEWT classes while Harry, the boys had been told only to address him as such when alone, guided them to their Potions class as he didn't have any lessons that morning.


	11. Chapter 11 - The First Day

Chapter 11 – The First Day

Harry directed the boys down to the dungeons, where they found their fellow Ravenclaw's and the Hufflepuff's queuing up outside. They joined Katy and spoke briefly to her before the walrus-like form of Professor Slughorn opened the dungeon door.

"Welcome!" he greeted them jovially, "Please come in." There was a desperate scrabble for the two back desks in the dungeon and Aaron and Adam were able to join little Nadia Rahman at one while three Hufflepuff girls took the other one. Slughorn appeared not to have noticed and stood at the front of the room smiling at them.

"This lesson will be a brief introduction to potions. The brewing of potions is one of the most complicated forms of magic, and therefore we will spend the first few lessons learning the basics and learning how to identify ingredients. Could you all please take out your copies of _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_ and we'll begin." The lesson proceeded thoroughly uneventfully for the first hour, with the students taking some brief notes on the herbs that Slughorn talked to them about before he invited them to the front of the classroom. Everybody was giving the area closest to the desk quite a wide berth.

"Now then, we have a selection of stones here. One of these is a bezoar, a special stone taken from the stomach of a goat which can be used as an antidote to poisons. Can any of you tell me which one is the bezoar?" The class edged closer to the desk and examined the collection or rocks. Before he could help himself, Adam pointed out a particularly bumpy rock and exclaimed,

"That one." The whole class turned their heads to him. Slughorn looked surprised someone had worked it out so quickly.

"How did you know?"

"Well, you said that bezoars are made from hair or plant fibre, and that one has a tiny hair in it." Slughorn picked it up and examined the bezoar more closely.

"Very good, Black wasn't it? Ten points to Ravenclaw."

Adam was still blushing as they left the classroom fifteen minutes later. Aaron seemed particularly amused.

"You're gonna be a right teacher's pet aren't you?" Adam ignored him as they walked outside to the greenhouses, where they were to have their herbology lesson. This lesson they were to have with the Slytherin's. As they queued outside, Adam saw with a lurch of dislike Matthew White, who he still had not spoken to. White caught sight of Adam with his bright blue hair and smiled widely, making no effort to hide it. Before he could speak however, Professor Sprout emerged from the greenhouse and took them inside.

Herbology was very similar to Potions. This lesson, they were just learning about some of the more basic plants from the same textbook while being told about the more dangerous plant's they would be looking at later in the year. As they had entered, Adam had managed to drag Aaron in the opposite direction to White, who was being followed by a large crowd of Slytherin's. However, when Professor Sprout asked them to each grab a plant pot, Adam had to head to the back of the greenhouse, where they were standing.

"You're Black, right?" White asked in a surprisingly deep voice.

"Yes." Adam answered simply, but White grabbed the plant pot that he was holding, keeping him in place.

"I saw you in Diagon Alley."

"I know." Adam yanked the plant pot, but White wasn't letting go.

"I see you've uh, made a friend." White was looking past Adam at Aaron who was waiting for him. He was wearing a very disdainful look, looking at Aaron's untucked shirt and wild hair.

"Yes, I have."

"You should have spoken to me in Diagon Alley, you could have been my friend instead."

"Yes, I could have. I'm glad I didn't though." With a strong tug, Adam dislodged the plant pot from White's grip and walked back over to where Aaron stood waiting.

"Just ignore him." Aaron said for the fourth time as they headed back to the castle, White looking over his shoulder at them both, whispering and prompting roars of laughter from the other Slytherin's.

"Why should I? He's an arrogant little…" Adam tailed off, unable to find a word bad enough to describe Matthew White, "Who's he to question my choice in friends?"

"Exactly," Since he had told him what White had said about him, Aaron had been quite quiet and there was a distinct blush on his face, "You've just got to try and stay away from him. At least we only have Herbology with the Slytherin's." They trekked back up to the castle for lunch.

After a thoroughly tasty lunch of sausages and mashed potatoes, the two boys went off to Charms. Professor Flitwick provided the most fun lesson for them so far. To start off, he made it quite clear that he expected great things from his Ravenclaw students, much to their concern. After introducing them to the basic concepts behind charms and telling them all to relax, being the only teacher thus far to notice their nerves, he told them that they would be practicing their first spell, much to everyone's excitement. For the whole lesson, the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor students began to practice the Wand-Lighting Charm. Adam and Aaron found the spell quite easily and spent the lesson making their wand tips light up ever brighter and by the end of the lesson, they were two of the few who had succeeded.

Their final lesson of the day was Defence Against the Dark Arts. Having been introduced to Harry that morning and succeeded in casting the Wand-Lighting Charm, Adam and Aaron felt considerably more confident and sat down the front of the class, where they were joined by a very nervous looking Alice Norton. Despite the high expectations people had of the lesson based on its name, the lesson proved to be highly similar to the first two. After casting a highly impressive spell which produced a silver stag, galloping round the room, Harry's lesson revolved around taking notes on curses, jinxes and hexes as well as their counter-spells. At the end of the lesson, Harry told them that next week they wouldn't be having a lesson as the students would begin flying lessons during the second week, much to everyones excitement. As they were packing up to leave, Harry held Adam and Aaron back.

"How's the first day been then?" Adam replied with an "OK", much less enthusiastic than Aaron's "Good". Harry turned to him, "What brought your day down?" Adam then proceeded to explain about the encounter in herbology with Matthew White and what he had said. Harry simply smiled.

"There's always someone like that. There was someone just like that in my year at the school. You just have to learn to ignore them. Besides, I think it's nice that you'd stick up for your friend like that." Adam went down to dinner feeling significantly better.

Having received absolutely no homework, Adam and Aaron spent that evening chatting to the other Ravenclaw's about what had happened on their eventful first day. Adam was pleased to find that the others had taken the same view as him about Matthew White. The ten of them all grouped around one of the tables and Adam and Aaron began helping the others to practice with the Wand-Lighting Charm, most of whom had received homework as they had struggled with it. It was a loud and fun-loving night and by the end of the evening even Aaron, who had been very quiet around the girls because of his initial shyness was laughing and joking with the rest of them.


	12. Chapter 12 - The Raven Gang

Chapter 12 – The Raven Gang

The rest of the first week passed fairly uneventfully. Potions was fastly becoming Adam's least favourite lesson however. Following his performance in the first lesson, Professor Slughorn appeared to favour him over the rest of the students and expected more from him, which led too much teasing from Aaron and the other Ravenclaws. Even History of Magic seemed favourable to Potions, despite it being the most boring subject on the curriculum. They had it double on a Thursday afternoon and Adam and Aaron, to save themselves the boredom, had taken turns at writing notes and sleeping like everyone else.

Aside from these, the other lessons all proved quite enjoyable. Professor Flitwick had similar expectations to Professor Slughorn, but most people were at a similar level so there wasn't so much pressure. Herbology and Transfiguration, which was still taught by Professor McGonagall were progressing slowly and nothing particularly exciting had happened yet, but all the background research was quite interesting. Defence Against the Dark Arts was also proving interesting but for different reasons. All of the students raised in wizarding families had been aware of Harry for a long time and spent most of the lessons bombarding him with questions about his adventures, much to his embarrassment.

Throughout the week, Adam and Aaron were becoming well acquainted with the other Ravenclaw's and by the weekend, eight of them were quite a tight-knit group. Only Matt French and Hannah Lampford were not complete parts of the group. They were both actually a year older than their fellow students but had been prevented from coming to Hogwarts the previous year. Matt as a muggle-born had not been permitted to attend and Hannah had been taken out of the country by her parents to stop her from going to the school.

Although friendly with the other first-years, Matt had some muggle-born friends in the second year who he spent most of his free time with. Hannah also had friends in the second year and didn't seem too happy about being in a year with other people. She was quite loud with her opinions, but went strangely quiet around Aaron, though he didn't seem to have noticed. In spite of this, they did spend some time with the others and they could all get on perfectly well.

Kayden and Dexter were both quite athletic and enjoyed being able to pass new information on to the muggle-borns. Laura Burton was a cheerful person who spent quite a bit of time revising the work they had gone over, even if the teachers didn't ask for it. Alice Norton had quickly become Laura's best friend and the two of them seemed like the female equivalents to Adam and Aaron. Alice proved to be quite innocent and gullible, but a generally nice person who was very funny. Nadia Rahman turned out to be similar to Aaron. Despite how shy and quiet she had appeared at first glance, she soon proved to be very chatty and slightly hyperactive compared to her fellow Ravenclaws. Finally, Katy Hilton proved to be one of the most normal out of all of them. She was friendly, relatively chatty and had a good sense of humour, though she was quite naïve.

The group spent a lot of time together and alternated sitting with each other during lessons. Adam and Aaron always sat together and were usually joined by one of the others. In History of Magic, where Professor Binns probably wouldn't have noticed if a student died of boredom, they would push three desks together and all chat quietly. The others, having noticed Adam and Aaron's tactic of dictating notes for half of the lesson each, also adopted it so that four of them would write notes while the other half either relaxed or chatted amongst themselves.

Even though they had gotten quite close to their fellow Ravenclaws, Adam and Aaron still spent some time with Hermione, Ginny and Luna. This was usually at meal times, though Luna sometimes spent evenings with the others in the common room. They soon learnt not to take anything that Luna said too seriously, with the half-bloods usually starting to argue with her over some of the things she would say, including the existence of Nargles and Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. The only one who really took her seriously was Alice.

As the first weekend arrived, Adam and Aaron went down to breakfast to find Luna sitting with Hermione and Ginny. None of the other Ravenclaws had come down yet.

"Hey, how's your first week been?" Hermione asked.

"Great. It's so much better than muggle school." Adam helped himself to an egg and began cutting some bread up into soldiers.

"Hopefully it'll be a nice quiet year this year." Ginny muttered to herself.

"Why?" Aaron looked up from his bowl of cereal.

"We've had magical stones, giant snakes, criminals, dragons, battles and worst of all Dolores Umbridge during our years here. It should be nice to have a quiet year." Hermione told them.

The five of them ate their breakfast slowly before heading down to visit Hagrid. Although surprised to see two first-years, he welcomed them in and offered him some of his rock cakes but a warning look from Hermione saw them slip them carefully into their pockets. They spent the rest of the morning chatting about their weeks with Hagrid over tea before finally heading back up to the castle for lunch. The afternoon was dedicated to a Potions essay, Adam having been set an extension much to Aaron's amusement, before relaxing in the evening with the other Ravenclaws. Adam went to sleep that night, feeling better about the past three days than he had over the last eleven years.


End file.
